I stopped for fuel today at 120ish, and I did 40+ish MPG. I typically always fuel here and remember I have a pessimistic fuel guage. At this point its sitting about a needle width from the left side white line (before res).

As I was pumping gas I drifted off as I typically do and thought about this thread. I have NEVER run my girl into her res selection. I've never even switched it to it for giggles. I've never let the bike get that low. That started a whole new drift in my head and brought up a few thoughts.

1. Should I let it get into res? Besides the obvious extra fuel when low, is there any benefit to letting it get that low? Thinking like a truck/car (sorry) that's not good to let it get low often.

2. By not using it am I causing it to gum up or allow sediment from the gas to rest there? Helping a filter clog, or letting a fuel line dry up crack by no use? Could it run in res all the time. Or if in a emergency run res instead of main.

3. What about fumes and pressure (especially in hot climates like me) more fuel, less vapors. Thinking like a firefighter, I'd rather have liquid I can see and deal with and much less pressures.

4. How safe is it for you and/or the bike? I've never needed it, but how good is it to let a hot motor die from fuel starvation, and if you are in an "Oh S4!t" moment how easy would it be to switch. How long does the motor feel the effects of the switch.

Not jumping on a soap box, just some random thoughts and OCD....

 

I consistently get 40 mpg on my day to day riding to work. I get 50 mpg on nice long rides. I usually get fuel when I get 200 miles on the trip odometer. That means I've used 5 gallons out of my tank.

If I were able to run the tank dry on the freeway, I could go 290 miles which is incredible.

 

[quote=michealparks;829493 4. How safe is it for you and/or the bike? I've never needed it, but how good is it to let a hot motor die from fuel starvation, and if you are in an "Oh S4!t" moment how easy would it be to switch. How long does the motor feel the effects of the switch.

Not jumping on a soap box, just some random thoughts and OCD....[/quote]


i dont know about most of your other questions, but from experiance it is pretty easy to switch, the only problem is that you need to pull the clutch and coast for a couple seconds to let the carbs fill up. then i pop started it, i guess you could keep holding the clutch and use the starter as well.

 

The fuel in a car/truck tank often holds water vapor which can rust the inside of the tank. That is normally the given reason for not letting them sit at below half a tank for extended periods. With the size of our tanks I don't think this is an issue.

The only difference between reserve and the regular setting is the intake port is lower in the tank. That would mean there is a slight chance of sediment build up if you never lean the bike and never have quick starts or stops. I think the reserve setting removes the vacuum operated cutoff so it would possibly damage the floats sitting that way.


I've hit the point where i needed to switch to reserve a few times and usually notice before the engine dies from fuel starvation which means its a simple matter of moving my leg a little and switching the selector. At that point it was an instantaneous switch.